Since good posture always results in better playing, here, we explain the best and most comfortable way to hold your guitar whether you’re sitting down or standing up. While you can play an acoustic or electric guitar either standing or sitting, if you’re a complete beginner, we recommend sitting down to play at first. This will help you make a habit of adopting the right posture every time you play so that, when you do stand, you’ll be set up with the best possible way to play.

These days, a lot of audio interfaces and MIDI controllers come with a free edition of Bitwig, but what is Bitwig exactly? Bitwig is a pretty young DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) that manages to mix together all of the best bits of other well-known recording software like ProTools, Cubase and Ableton before throwing in a few new and unique functions of its own. Here, we take a tour through the software to see what’s what.

These days, it’s almost standard practice to record every member of the band separately, whether you’ve booked some time in a recording studio or you’re doing everything at home. But, for a lot of reasons, more and more bands are longing to make a return to full band recording, where every member of the band is recorded at the same time, while playing together – in the same room – but preferably not in a hyper-expensive recording studio.The problem is, the two channels of your audio interface just won’t cut it. Even with eight channels, you’re going to fall short. So what’s possible? Can you even get massive multi-channel audio interfaces? Or will you need to kit out the band with a specialised recorder or mixer?

You happily tune up your guitar, your bass, your ukulele or another string instrument and a few minutes later it’s already fallen horribly out of tune. In desperation, you look to the sky and cry out to the universe: “Why won’t it stay in tune?!!” It’s a simple question but it has at least ten possible answers. So, depending on the answer, you might be able to solve the problem in the blink of an eye. Or you might be working with an instrument that’s in dire need of a good tune-up. No matter the problem, you’ll be able to find the solution in this list of the usual suspects when it comes to wonky tuning stability.

Working from home surrounded by restless kids? Then it can sometimes feel like you’re not just the breadwinner and caretaker, but the teacher. Besides cartoons and YouTube videos, one of the sure-fire ways to keep children entertained and out of trouble is music, but coming up with fun music-related games and activities at home can be a tall order, especially if you should be working at the same time. Not to worry! Here, we’ve stacked up seven tips and musical games that you can try out and see what sticks… or comes to a sticky end.

If you’re looking for your first digital piano and want to make sure you’re not only well informed, but know exactly what you’re looking for before you start wading through the sea of models that are out there, then this blog has been written for you. Here, you’ll find out the ten most essential things to know about when it comes to picking out the right digital piano.

Effects: what are they and what do musicians actually do with them? When it comes to music, effects are everywhere, so if you’re struggling to see the wood for the trees, this blog has been written to offer a guide for anyone taking their first steps into the more technology-based side of music. Here, we’ll cover chorus and what you can do with it, but we’ll also look at concepts related to creating ensembles.

In this guitar-focussed article, guest-blogger Marc serves up a step-by-step guide on how to swap out the standard strap buttons of your acoustic guitar, electric guitar or bass with strap locks. Rest assured, it’s easier than you think and all it takes is a screwdriver and a little bit of your time. Let’s get started.

As soon as the first electric guitars and guitar amplifiers popped up in the 1950s, distorted sound went from being a nuisance to being an enrichment. What’s more, without distortion, styles like rock, punk and metal probably never would’ve existed, and in styles like EDM and hip-hop, using the effect has practically turned into an art form in its own right. That said, distortion isn’t always desirable. Read on for the hows and whys.

Since he once struggled to grasp music theory himself, guest-blogger Lode Habex knows exactly how to help out beginners. In this article, Lode breaks down the circle of fifths and explains why it’s one of the most practical tools that musicians can use to match scales, find notes, create chord progressions, and more.

When it comes to mixing music, mix automation refers to track settings that can be automated, like volume, pan, send and mute. By automating these settings via DAW software, their values be varied throughout the song. Take a volume fader assigned to a guitar track for example – by automating it, you can set it to automatically boost the volume by a few decibels when the solo starts.

Recording a solo singer-songwriter? How hard can it be? All you need to do is set up one or two microphones and hit record, right? Unfortunately, it’s not actually that simple. If you’re only using one microphone, you have next-to-no control over the balance. And, even though using two microphones is the smarter option, how do you deal with any phase issues? Of course, your singer-songwriter could be playing any instrument, but in this blog we’ll focus on recording vocals and an acoustic guitar at the same time.